Donor profile: William Doré

Introduction

Total contributions to super PACs: $2.5 million*

• $2.25 million to the Red, White and Blue Fund (pro-Rick Santorum)
• $245,000 to Patriot Voices PAC (pro-conservative)
• $25,000 to Majority PAC (pro-Democratic)
• $25,000 to Louisiana Prosperity Fund (pro-Charles Boustany)

Federal hard money and 527 contributions**:

Not including his super PAC contributions, Doré, along with his wife, has donated nearly $400,000 to federal candidates, party committees, business PACs and other political committees that report to the IRS since the 1990 election cycle, including:

• $100,000 earlier this year to a 527 committee called Believe in Louisiana that supports Louisiana GOP Gov. Bobby Jindal’s education reform efforts
• $75,000 to the Republican Governors Association, including $25,000 from Doré Energy (2010)
• $53,500 to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (between 2004 and 2008)
• $26,400 to Rep. Charles Boustany, R-La. (between 2004 and 2011)
• $25,000 to the “2001 President’s Dinner Committee,” a “soft money” account that benefited the National Republican Senatorial Committee and National Republican Congressional Committee

Corporate name: Doré Energy Corp.; former president, CEO and chairman of the board of Global Industries, Ltd.

Total spent on federal lobbying (2007-2012): $0

Lobbying issues: N/A

Family: Wife Kay, and four children.

Biography:

William “Bill” Doré has more than 30 years of experience in the diving and marine construction industry.

In 1973, he purchased the near-bankrupt rental equipment company that serviced oil and gas operators where he had been working. That company grew from a three-person operation into Global Industries, Ltd., which had revenues exceeding $1.2 billion in 2006, when Doré announced his retirement. In 2011, the French firm Technip acquired Global Industries for more than $1 billion.

Doré served as the president, CEO and chairman of the board of Global Industries, which had operations in the United States, as well as Mexico, India and China. He is also a past president of the Association of Diving Contractors, the founder and a past president of the Offshore Pipeline Contractors Association and one-time board member of the National Ocean Industry Association.

Doré ranks as the top donor to the Red, White and Blue Fund super PAC that backed Republican Rick Santorum in the GOP presidential primary.

A month after he cut his first seven-figure check to the group, both he and his wife donated the legal maximum of $2,500 to Santorum’s campaign. After Santorum dropped out of the presidential race and started his own super PAC, called Patriot Voices, Doré contributed $245,000 to that effort.

In the fall of 2012, Doré also doled out two $25,000 contributions — one to the pro-Democratic super PAC Majority PAC, which sought to help the party retain control of Congress’ upper chamber, and one to the Louisiana Prosperity Fund, which aided Rep. Charles Boustany, R-La., has he battled fellow GOP Rep. Jeff Landry after the state’s redistricting process. Boustany won after the race went to a December runoff.

Not including his super PAC giving, Doré’s donations over the years have favored Republicans and Republican groups nearly 3-to-1. A sizeable portion of the money that has aided Democrats has gone to Louisianans such as Chris John and Mary Landrieu.

Over the past two decades, Doré, along with his wife, Kay, have contributed more than $200,000 to federal candidates, PACs and party committees — not including super PAC contributions.

In early 2012, Doré also donated $100,000 to a 527 committee called Believe in Louisiana that supports Louisiana GOP Gov. Bobby Jindal’s education reform efforts, and in 2010, he donated $75,000 to the Republican Governors Association, including $25,000 from Doré Energy.

In 2001, Doré paid $25,000 to the “President’s Dinner” committee, the annual joint fundraising event of the National Republican Senatorial Committee and the National Republican Congressional Committee that featured a keynote speech by President George W. Bush, whose first presidential campaign Doré had given $2,000. Other big donors to the dinner committee, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, included former Univision head Jerry Perenchio, libertarian-leaning businessman David Koch, Home Depot co-founder Bernard Marcus and billionaire broadcaster Stanley Hubbard.

During the 2004 presidential election, Doré again donated $2,000 to Bush while also giving $1,000 to his Democratic rival, Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass. Four years later, he and his wife both gave the legal maximum of $2,300 to GOP presidential candidate Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz.

During the 2006 election cycle, Doré contributed the legal maximum of $10,000 to the political action committee of the National Ocean Industries Association, part of the $174,000 the PAC raised. That election cycle, it doled out $83,000 to federal candidates and committees, with California Republican Rep. Richard Pombo, despised by environmentalists, ranking as its top beneficiary, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.

Doré was born in 1942 into a poor family in southern Louisiana. His educated mother was from a family of Lebanese immigrants. His father, who couldn’t read or write, hailed from a family of Cajun farmers. He was a heavy drinker and would sometime beat his son.

As he grew up, Doré pursued academics and athletics, landing a scholarship that took him to McNeese University in Lake Charles, La. He worked several jobs on the side, including selling life insurance, as he earned his undergraduate and graduate degrees. He ultimately moved to New Orleans and sold real estate, mutual funds and stocks and bonds before going into the offshore oil and gas construction industry.

Last updated: Jan. 30, 2012

*2011-2012 election cycle. Source: Center for Responsive Politics and Center for Public Integrity analysis of Federal Election Commission records. Totals include contributions from individuals, family members and corporations that are controlled by the individual super donor.

**1989-2012; source: Federal Election Commission; Internal Revenue Service; Center for Responsive Politics